Hi and welcome back to Nighty Night, bedtime stories to keep you awake.

I'm your host, Rabi Jachadri and in this week's story,

the author delivers us a deft sleight of hand that proves if you even blink for a second,

sometimes you miss the entire story.

An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

by Ambrose Biers.

Part 1. A man stood upon a railroad bridge in Northern Alabama looking down into the swift water 20 feet below.

The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord, a rope closely encircled his neck.

It was attached to a stout cross timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees.

Some loose boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for

him and his executioners. Two private soldiers of the Federal Army,

directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff.

And a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank, armed.

He was a captain.

A sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as support.

That is to say, vertical in front of the left shoulder, the hammer resting on the forearm

thrown straight across the chest, a formal and unnatural position,

enforcing an erect carriage of the body.

It did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring

at the center of the bridge.

They merely blockaded the two ends of the foot

planking that traversed it. Beyond one of the sentinels, nobody was in sight.

...